RICHMOND -- The city is looking to give new life to its alleyways with a new initiative intended to turn blighted areas into community green space. In partnership with nonprofit groups Pogo Park, the Trust for Public Land and the Watershed Project, in addition to the Iron Triangle Neighborhood Council, the city has completed its first prototype project, the Matthieu Court Alley.

Over eighty fourth-graders from Peres Elementary joined us at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Park on Wednesday, March 23 to launch Richmond’s Every Kid in a Park initiative! These awesome students enjoyed a special field trip to the Visitor Center and Memorial, took a healthy walk along the San Francisco Bay Trail, and brought home a free Park pass admitting them- and their families- to any National Park site this year.

With Every Kid in a Park, The Trust and the Park are partnering with UC Berkeley, Groundwork Richmond, and West Contra Costa Unified School District to cover transportation and other costs so that every Richmond fourth-grade student can take a special field trip to the Park in 2016.

The students filed into the Craneway Pavilion to start the day off with a celebratory program. Speakers included NPS Deputy Director Denise Ryan, who encouraged students to take their new Park passes and explore as many sites as possible, Mayor Tom Butt, and Peres Elementary student Yaretzy Marquez.

Yaretzy spoke about the importance of Parks on behalf of the next generation of stewards and advocates , saying, “They help us understand our history and help us stay connected to our past. They also give us a chance to celebrate ourselves.”

Rosie the Riveter Trust is proud to support this initiative. To give to Every Kid in a Park and ensure that we reach our goal of bringing over 1,200 students to the Park in 2016, click here. Or mail checks to Rosie the Riveter Trust, P.O. Box 71126, Richmond, CA 94807 with “Every Kid in a Park” in the subject line. For more information, call 510-507-2276.

The fourth graders of Peres Elementary School were buzzing with excitement as they filed outside the historic Craneway Pavilion last Wednesday during the Every Kid in a Park launch event. They were about to receive their park passes, handed to them personally by National Park Service Deputy Director Denise Ryan, Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, Richmond Mayor Tom Butt, as well as NFL players Joshua Johnson, Marcus Peters and Alvin Bowen.

When you're in San Francisco, it's easy to overlook Richmond. It’s across the water, across a long bridge (the Bay Bridge or the Richmond Bridge, take your pick), in the East Bay. It’s known as being scrappy, transitional, a little sketchy. Your chance of becoming a victim of violent crime there is twice as high as in California as a whole.

Priscilla Elder, a Pinole resident and one of the group of original women war workers who relate their experiences each Friday at the Rosie the Riveter WWII/Home Front National Historical Park visitors center in Richmond, turned 96 today and was acknowledged by Richmond Mayor Tom Butt and other dignitaries at an event with National Park Service officials today at the Craneway Pavilion.

Across the San Francisco Bay, among the old shipyards and retired car-assembly lines, stands the Home Front for World War II in Richmond, California. In the 1940s, this city welcomed a deluge of workers, more than 100,000, eager to help build ships, planes and military supplies to support the war effort.

As the National Park Service celebrates its centennial anniversary, the local arm of a nationwide initiative aims to bring every fourth-grader in Richmond to the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park for a field trip in 2016.